Digital collections
In memory of Guadalupe Echevarria (1948-2023)
On 2 March 1982, a young woman called Guadalupe Echevarria sent a letter written on purple paper from Paris telling the director of the San Sebastián Festival, Luis Gasca, that she had had an idea: to organise a festival within a festival, completely dedicated to a new medium, video. A few months later, Echevarria, better known as “Guada” by those close to her, would head a team of four women (alongside Nuria Gutiérrez, Marta Pérez Yarza and Cristina Elguezabal) who set about turning San Sebastián into an international reference point for thinkers, artists and creators who were experimenting with video between 1982 and 1984.
The San Sebastian Festival archive contains all documentary traces of this experience, comprising 170 records of documents from the Video Festival Collection, as well as several photographs and myriad press cuttings. Through this rich documentary legacy we can understand how Guada’s proposal gathered new audiences around à la carte avant-garde video programmes, installations, music videos and seminars, as well as deploying a dense international network of collaborations and partnerships. In fact, it is impossible to describe the importance enjoyed by the video in the Basque cultural scene from the second half of the 80s without referring to this pioneer experience: from the Faculty of Fine Arts to the career of numerous artists, from experimental institutions like Arteleku to festivals and meetings in Vitoria, Tolosa, Getxo and Pamplona.
On 12 June this year, Guada died in San Sebastián at the age of 75. At the public presentation of the archive in December 2022, the research team on the Zinemaldia 70: all possible stories project paid tribute to this figure, whose steps we had passionately followed through her entries in the archive and also through discussions with her. With the publication of this purple letter, announcing the dream of a young 34-year-old woman who would end up playing the lead part in one of the most daring and innovative episodes in the event’s seven decades, we continue to stress the importance of her memory, essential in understanding the history of the San Sebastian Festival.
Regulations of the II Cartago International Film Festival (1968) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter from Josefina Molina to the Festival organisers (1978) San Sebastian Festival Archive [+]
Letter from Diego Galán to film director Jafar Panahi (1998) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Program for the 11th edition of the Festival International de Films de Femmes de Créteil et du Val de Marne (1989) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter from Wolf Kochmann to Pilar Olascoaga on the death of Bette Davis (1989) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter from Luis Buñuel to the Mayor of San Sebastián Antonio Vega de Seoane (1960) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter sent by Antonio de Zulueta y Besson to the Cineclub Irún accepting to collaborate with them (1960) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter from underground filmmaker Antoni Padrós to Pilar Olascoaga (1977) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Letter from Alfredo Guevara, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture of Cuba and founder of ICAIC, to Luis Gasca, Secretary General of the Festival (1977) San Sebastian Festival Archive [+]
HLetter sent by VALIE EXPORT to Festival Director Miguel de Echarri (1977) San Sebastian Festival Archive [+]
Handwritten letter from Jean Cocteau to Antonio de Zulueta y Besson (1959) San Sebastian Festival Archive [+]
ACommunication with the director Pierre Clémenti (1979-1980) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Accreditation of Pilar Olascoaga to attend the 40th edition of the Berlinale (1990) San Sebastian Festival Archive. [+]
Handwritten note by Pedro Almodóvar (1980) San Sebastian International Film Festival Archive [+]